Black Friday

We’ve talked a little bit in class about “Buy Nothing Day” instead of “Black Friday.” I’ve seen this call for protest going around in the wake of the Ferguson verdict. They are calling for supporters to boycott Black Friday and use #HandsUpDontSpend. Thinking about this protest within the history of Civil Right’s Movements, I think this could be really powerful and effective. For example, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was effective because it directly attacked the economy. If there was nobody to ride the buses, the buses couldn’t run. If enough people boycott “Black Friday” if could cut down on business revenue tremendously. One point of contention I see in this campaign is that it doesn’t necessarily relate directly to the issues at hand. With the Montgomery Bus boycotts, they were advocating for a clear solution–desegregating busses. Certainly, there is a history of classism associated with racism that could relate to economic target, but other than that I’m struggling to find the clear correlation. If anyone has ideas, I would love to hear them. Additionally, the hashtag going around right now is #blacklivesmatter and in that regard, I do think demonstrating the economic power boycotting Black Friday would be one way to show that.

The biggest problem I see with the “Buy Nothing Day” protest is that it is only one day. People will just buy it the next day. The reason the bus boycott worked was that it lasted 20 days – December 1 to December 20 – during the holiday season. The question, to which I think the answer is no, is will people deprive themselves of material consumerism for three weeks during the Christmas holiday season for a cause that really doesn’t effect them?